CROATIA: Croatian PM Sanader announces emergency measures to fight organised crime, after violence threatens Croatia's EU membership bid

Record ID: 356892

  • Title: CROATIA: Croatian PM Sanader announces emergency measures to fight organised crime, after violence threatens Croatia's EU membership bid
  • Date: 25th October 2008
  • Summary: ZAGREB MAIN SQUARE PEOPLE WALKING ON STREET IN CENTRE OF ZAGREB STREET LEADING TO MAIN SQUARE
  • Embargoed: 9th November 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Croatia
  • Country: Croatia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1CIQPMZED1CIIBB9RMIM366GJ
  • Story Text: Croatia vows new anti-mafia measures after the killing of a prominent newspaper editor and his marketing chief in the centre of Zagreb.
    Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Friday (October 24) announced emergency measures to fight organized crime after prominent weekly newspaper editor and his marketing chief were killed in a bomb blast in the centre of Zagreb on Thursday (October 23) as violence escalated to the point of threatening Croatia's European Union membership bid.
    There is no need to declare a state of emergency, but we will introduce extraordinary mobilization measures," Sanader told reporters after a meeting of the National Security Council.
    A car bomb killed Ivo Pukanic, editor of Nacional weekly, and his marketing chief Niko Franjic in Zagreb on Thursday.

    "At this moment we can not prejudge the nature of this assassination and terrible killing that happened yesterday, but we can and will wait for the end result of the investigation. Croatia will be a safe country, this is the message of the session of National Security Council," Sanader added.
    Crime scene investigators are still working on the scene of Thursday's bomb blast in the centre of Zagreb, the last in a series of incidents that have hit the Croatian capital this year.
    People in Croatia have mixed feelings about safety in their capital city. "Personally I feel safe. Because I am sure no one will shoot at me or something like that. But otherwise all of this has crossed all the lines," retired Josko from Zagreb told Reuters.
    Student Miroslav who lives close to the crime scene is more concerned.
    "I do not feel really safe, since this happened around 100 metres away from where I live," he said, adding that the government is saying that the measures have been taken, but nothing had been seen on the streets of Zagreb.
    Tackling corruption and organized crime is one of the requirements Zagreb has to meet if it wants to wrap up EU accession talks next year.
    Sanader sacked the interior and justice ministers earlier this month, when he announced a set of tough 'anti-mafia' laws.
    The sackings were prompted by a string of unresolved public beatings and the murder of a prominent lawyer's daughter, who was shot twice in the head in the stairway of the building where she lived, not far from the Zagreb police headquarters.
    This year, a well-known crime reporter was beaten up on the street, a member of the Zagreb city administration was attacked with baseball bats and in September the chief executive of a major construction firm was assaulted with iron bars.
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